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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Pursuing prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s strategy of
using development and corruption as the main poll plank without invoking
the Hindutva slogan, the state BJP is making a vigorous bid to reach
out to the Christian community ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The
party is all set for an open interaction with the community leaders and
intellectuals to dispel the negative image in their minds about the
BJP. The first of this interaction with the theme ‘BJP’s Vision for
Christian Brethren’ will be held on Tuesday evening in Bangalore.
Retired High Court judge MF Saldanha and retired IAS officer Lucas
Vallatharai among others are scheduled to participate in the event.
State
BJP leadership has invited its Deputy Chief Minister in Goa, Francis
DSouza to use his goodwill at the interaction. Former minister Suresh
Kumar will explain BJP’s commitment to secularism and programmes
implemented by the previous BJP government for the welfare of the
community.
General Secretary of BJP Minority Morcha, Kennedy
Shantakumar told Express: “Christians are a highly educated community.
The previous BJP government had launched several programmes for the
welfare of this community. Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa had for
the first time allocated `50 crore for their development. He had also
set up Karnataka Christian Development Council. The community has many
prejudices and misconceptions about the BJP. We will try to remove them
through open interactions with prominent leaders of the community.”
Similar
interactions would be organised in regions where there is a
significant concentration of Christian population. “The Christian
community has organised an interaction with leaders of all the prominent
political parties at St Mark’s Cathedral in Bangalore on March 1. The
BJP wants to understand the aspirations of the Christian community,”
Kennedy said.
Kennedy pointed out at the recent developments in
Kerala, where orthodox Church leaders had appreciated Modi’s development
agenda.
However, the party still has a long way to go in its
endeavour. This was evident when Express contacted Lucas Vellatharai,
who is one of the guest listed in the BJP’s invite. “Attacks against
Christians and Churches had seen a rise during the BJP regime. There are
many good leaders in the BJP too. But it is the writ of the lower level
leaders that runs. It will be difficult to believe the BJP unless it
severs its ties with hardcore Sangh Parivar,” he said. Vellatharai also
said that he could not confirm his participation at Tuesday’s
interaction as he has to attend another programme on the same evening.
“I will turn up only if the other programme, which I have to attend,
ends early,” he said.Counting on Community
Christians
constitute about 3.1 per cent of the state’s total population. The
community is in a position to play a decisive role in Bangalore Central
and Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituencies. The BJP had fielded H T
Sangliana, a Christian as its candidate from Bangalore North Lok Sabha
constituency in 2004.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Religion and violence cross paths again in small-town Andhra Pradesh
as right-wing fundamentalists target the local clergy, allegedly to
arrest conversions

On January 10, at around 8:30pm in Vikarabad, 69km from
Hyderabad, a group of men knocked on Pastor Sanjeevulu’s door. They said
they had come to offer prayers. When Pramila, the pastor’s wife, opened
the door, she was struck on the forehead with an iron rod. The
assailants then marched into the house and stabbed the pastor,
repeatedly. He was beaten with clubs and hit on the head with the iron
rod. The attack barely lasted 10 minutes but Sanjeevulu sustained severe
injuries to his liver, spleen and intestines. Three days later, he
succumbed to his wounds at the Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad.

By
the end of January, State police had arrested seven of the eight
accused. All of them have been linked to Hindu Vahini, a right-wing
organisation described as an affiliate of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
with its State unit located in Hyderabad. G Sreenu, alias Rama Krishna,
was identified as the leader of the group formed by youth from the
Nalgonda district. He had been working at Hindu Vahini as a full-time
pracharak for the last few years.

In December 2013,
three other attacks on clergy members were reported in the same
district. These four incidents have revealed a chilling pattern — the
same modus operandi, the same right-wing outfit behind the attacks,
conversions as the alleged motive. In what appears to be a series of
planned attacks, churches in Andhra Pradesh are increasingly being
targeted by right-wing assailants. In 2013 alone, the State witnessed 72
incidents of anti-Christian violence, with several more unreported, say
local residents. According to a report released by Catholic Secular
Forum last year, AP had the second highest incidence of cases of
persecution against Christians after Karnataka. In total, around 4,000
Christians, were targeted, 400 clergy members among them. About 100
churches were also attacked. In Nalgonda district alone, more than 1,000
churches are now living in fear.

On December 29, at
11:45pm, four men came knocking at Pastor Nama Moses’s door in
Narketpally town, Nalgonda. Suvartha, the pastor’s wife, opened the
door, thinking it was an acquaintance. She was struck on the head with
an iron rod and Pastor Moses was hit repeatedly and stabbed nine times —
a chillingly similar sequence of events echoing the assault on Pastor
Sanjeevulu. Nearly two months later in February, when BLink contacted
Pastor Moses, he had survived the brutal attack but was in no condition
to talk. “The pastor has been here for two decades now and I’ve never
known such enmity. I don’t understand why we were attacked. He has never
forced anyone to convert,” says Suvartha. Her daughters, she says, have
been unable to go to school out of fear. And attendance at his church
has dwindled. “A few of them were local youth,” says Suvartha, “and they
had recently attacked another pastor as well.”

“People
are afraid of persecution,” says Kavitha, a resident of Nalgonda town.
“The pastor’s children were in the room when the attack happened. It was
only the morning after when they got any help.” Four weeks ago, a
meeting was held at the Church of South India — Kavitha’s church — to
discuss the violence targeting the community. “There have been many
attacks here,” Kavitha says, “but most of them don’t make news.” If
aggressively campaigned conversions are being cited as the reason for
the attacks, locals at least, dismiss the idea. “I was the first in my
family to turn to Christianity 13 years ago,” says Kavitha. “Nobody
forced me to. Nobody offered me anything in return. My mother was a
staunch Hindu, she didn’t approve of it. But today my family has
converted.”

“The attack on Pastor Moses might have
been personally motivated,” says Nalgonda’s Deputy Superintendent Ram
Mohan Rao. “G Raju, one of the group’s members, was known to have a
personal grudge. Someone in his family had a bad experience two years
ago and he had contacted Sreenu to do something about religious
conversions.”

However, Pastor Talla Christopher was
attacked on the same day as Pastor Moses in another village of the same
district. And, in yet another incident in December, Pastor Neeladri Pal
was also attacked. While the police have made some arrests, the accused
have apparently revealed a larger, systematic plan of Hindu Vahini to
eliminate members of the clergy all over AP. Pastors in other districts —
Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak — have also received death threats.

“There
is no personal angle in these attacks,” says Father Sudhakar, pastor of
Telugu Baptist Church in Warangal, who is involved in documenting
anti-Christian atrocities in the State. “It is politically motivated and
it is right-wing terror against minorities. Hindutva elements have been
attacking in three ways — attacks on the clergy, implicating church
officials in false cases of hate speech and demolishing churches and
burning Bibles.” In 2013, he says, there was a 70 per cent increase in
the attacks. This year has already seen four attacks. “We have also
documented 22 false cases against pastors.”

In an
election year, the threat to Christian minorities has acquired a serious
political colour; various church associations have written to the CM
seeking a ban on Hindu Vahini. MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi has also
demanded immediate action against Hindutva elements in the legislative
assembly.

“You know, it’s not only SCs, other
communities have also started turning to Christianity,” says Kavitha,
“and it has not gone down well.” The base is definitely growing, says
Father Sudhakar. “We don’t call them conversions, 90 per cent of SCs in
AP are Christians spiritually, if not on paper.”

Pastor
Jayraj still doesn’t know why he was attacked. On August 9, 2011, in
Narketpally, he was attacked by a 10-member mob at his home. He was hit
on the head and left to die. “I’ve heard of Hindu Vahini but I don’t
know what they do. I couldn’t identify them, they had masks on. The
police never caught them.”

With the violence directed
towards Christian minorities only growing, older, unsolved cases like
that of Pastor Jayraj are being revisited to look for possible links to
right-wing terrorism. “After Pastor Moses, other cases that were
undetected have come to light,” says DSP Mohan Rao. “Cases from 2011,
even 2009, are being reopened too.” Even as investigations are on, the
fear of being attacked continues to haunt AP’s Christian community.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Attacks against India's minority communities, particularly Muslims and
Christians, have increased in the past one year, US lawmakers were told
today.

During this period, the US Commission for International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) received reports that communal violence and attacks
against religious minorities increased in India despite its status as a
pluralistic, secular democracy, USCIRF Commissioner Elliott Abrams told
lawmakers.

"NGOs and religious leaders, including from the Muslim, Christian and
Sikh communities, attribute the increase to India's upcoming 2014
general election and politicians' use of religiously divisive language,
and they fear that incidents will become even more frequent as the
general election nears and immediately thereafter," Abrams said during a
Congressional hearing.

He said Christian NGOs and leaders had reported that Christians
experience "more harassment and violence in states that have
anti-conversion laws". He added, "In addition, India's record in
investigating and prosecuting religiously motivated crimes remained
mixed."

Testifying before the Congressional committee, Tehmina Arora from
Alliance Defending Freedom-India alleged that attacks have been reported
across the country over the past five years, though primarily
concentrated in states where the main opposition BJP has been in power
and where groups associated with it are active.

"Violence is fuelled primarily by non-state actors who are guided by the
Hindutva ideology, which sees India as a Hindu nation, where religious
minorities are second-class citizens," said Arora, who flew in from New
Delhi for the hearing.

"India, in spite of its long tradition for religious tolerance, finds
itself in the throes of religious fundamentalism and violence against
religious minorities for the past few decades," she said.

Reports by faith-based rights agencies showed that Christians had
suffered about 150 violent attacks on an average in the past few years,
Arora said.

These attacks include physical and sexual assaults, murder and desecration of places of worship and graveyards, she said.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Washington, USA (February 10, 2013):
According to certain media reports Indian Christians and Sikhs united
last month to urge California Congressmen to support a House resolution
that would make human rights and justice for religious minorities a
priority in U.S.-India talks.

HR 417 is waiting on hearings in the
U.S. House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees, which must approve
it before it can come to the House floor for a vote. The annual talks,
which President Barack Obama began in 2009, last took place in June
2013.

“This
is a particularly concerning issue at the moment because India is going
to elect a new prime minister in May,” said Pieter Singh, executive
director of Sikh Information Centre and Advisor to the Organization for
Minorities of India.

Singh said both candidates, Rahul Gandhi
and Narendra Modi, are linked to past attacks on religious minorities,
including Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians. Gandhi is the grandson of
Indira Gandhi, who led a military assault on the Golden Temple, a Sikh
holy place, in 1984. Modi has been accused of being complicit in the
2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat state, according to Agence France
Presse. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata party, a Hindu
nationalist political group.

“This is where religious minorities in
India are at the moment,” Singh said. “These two men are fighting to
rule India and look at their records.” The union of Christians and
Sikhs, was a “natural alliance” given their religious motivation to help
the oppressed, he said.

In 2009, the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) put India on a “watch list” for
its inadequate response to anti-Christian violence in Orissa (now
Odisha) in 2008, and the Gujarat killings of Muslims in 2002. In 2013,
USCIRF’s annual report placed India in Tier 2 status, noting that
Christians, Sikhs, and Muslims said intimidation and harassment had
increased, especially in states with laws against “forced” conversions.

William Stark, International Christian
Concern’s Regional Manager for South Asia, said most persecution in
India stems from Hindutva, the ideology that to be Indian is to be Hindu
and that other faiths are foreign. Authorities said Hindu extremists
were part of the group that stabbed a Christian pastor to death on his
doorstep in early January, Morning Star News reported.

Hindu extremists use anti-forced
conversion laws, which makes it illegal to “induce” someone to convert,
to arrest Christians because the interpretation of the word “induce” can
include the promise of eternal life, Stark said. In 2013, the Catholic
Secular Forum counted 4,000 offenses against Christians, including
attacks on clergy and churches.

“Passing HR 417 means valuing peace and
the preservation of human life over political gain, and supporting the
resolution is one of the key ways Christians can act to relieve the
oppressed,” Singh said in a statement.

Monday, February 10, 2014

KOLKATA:
Despite their decades-long demand, the central government is yet to
decide on giving scheduled caste status to Dalit Christians. The
National Council of Churches in India (An umbrella organization of 30
churches in the country - feels that it is time the government addressed
the issue and provided justice to them.
The community here
considers the demand for SC status to Dalit Christians the "the longest
struggle in independent India". The call surfaced once again as National
Council of Churches in India observed its centenary celebration.

"Reservation should not be affected by religious status. Dalits who
converted to Sikhism and Buddhism are given Scheduled Caste status. This
is discrimination against Christians," said Sunil Raj Philip, convenor
of NCCI centenary celebration.

Earlier last year, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh met Christian leaders and promised to resolve the issue,
after Christians and Muslims protested in New Delhi demanding SC status
to Dalit Christians and Muslims as recommended by Justice Ranganath
Mishra Commission.

"There has not been any progress after that and we are awaiting responses from the government," Raj Philip said.

The government referred the issue to the national Commission for
religious and Linguistic Minorities or Ranganath Mishra Commission in
2004. The commission submitted its report in 2007 and the report was
tabled in the parliament in 2009. According to Raj Philip,12 state
governments and Union Territories have recommended the issue of granting
SC status to Dalit Christians. Responding to a petition filed in 2004
Supreme Court had also asked the central government for its response.
But it is yet to respond to that," he said.

Meanwhile, the
national councils of churches in the neighbouring countries have decided
to start dialogues with administrations in respective countries to
address the issues affecting Christians. "We will campaign for
protection of human rights in all of the neighbouring countries. We will
also try to provide help wherever possible. We will initiate dialogues
with the administrations to reach a solution," said Roger Gaikwad,
general secretary of NCCI.

NCCI has denied reports that the NCCI
president and member churches endorse the leadership and candidacy of
Narendra Modi. "NCCI, being the ecumenical body of member churches from
different traditions, does not endorse any political party or leader," a
statement said.

Friday, February 07, 2014

The separation period required for a Christian couple to file a
petition for dissolution of marriage by mutual consent will be one year,
the Karnataka high court ruled on Monday.

The court disposed of public interest litigation relating to Section
10A (1) of the Divorce Act, 1869, (applicable to Christians) in the
light of a 2010 verdict of a division bench of the Kerala high court.

The Kerala court had read down the ‘two years’ separation period in
Section 10 A to ‘one year’ so as to bring the same in conformity with
Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, Section 32B of the Parsi Marriage
and Divorce Act and Section 28 of the Special Marriage Act.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice DH Waghela noted that the
Kerala court judgment has become the law of land in the light of an apex
court judgment which says that any verdict of a high court holds good
for the entire country unless the same is challenged in the apex court.

The bench also noted that the Centre, which was a respondent before the Kerala court, did not challenge the said judgment.

During the hearing, counsel for the Archdiocese of Bangalore said
that the dissolution of a Christian marriage by divorce by mutual
consent or by decree of court is not at all recognized by the Roman
Catholic Church (RCC).

“But realizing that a ‘marriage’ could be brought about with
underlying defects or shortcomings or other disqualification, the RCC
has procedure for annulment of marriage. Annulment by church is the only
way of termination of marriage recognized by the RCC,” he said.

The PIL was filed by Shivakumar, who challenged the norm under
Section 10A of the Divorce act prescribing a two-year period prior to
filling of petition for divorce by Christians.

The petitioner contended that a two-year separation period is
arbitrary as the Special Marriages Act, the Hindu Marriage Act and the
Parsi Marriage Act have a one-year separation period clause.

The Kerala high court had said: “Having considered all the relevant
circumstances, we are of the opinion that the stipulation of a higher
period of two years of mandatory minimum separate residence for those to
whom the Divorce Act applies, in contra-distinction to those similarly
placed to whom Sec 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, Sec 32B of the Parsi
Marriage and Divorce Act and Sec 28 of the Special Marriage Act would
apply, offends the mandate of equality and right to life under Arts14
and 21 of the Constitution.”

Thursday, February 06, 2014

The gang that knocked on the door of a pastor’s home in Andhra Pradesh
state and stabbed him to death earlier this month consisted of Hindu
extremists, authorities said.

State police have arrested seven of the eight members of the Hindu
Vahini group accused of attacking pastor Orucanti Sanjeevi on Jan. 10 at
his home in Vikarabad, 64 kilometers (39 miles) from the state capital
of Hyderabad, Area Deputy Superintendent of Police J. Ram Mohan Roa told
Morning Star News. The other suspect is absconding, he said.

Pastor Sanjeevi, 48, succumbed to his injuries on Jan. 13.

“The key member of this module is Gandikota Srinu, alias RK, a full-time
member of the Hindu Vahini, and these same people attempted to kill
another pastor in Narketpally,” Roa said.

The Rev. Madhusudan Das of the Evangelical Fellowship of India said the
Hindu extremists were upset about Christian growth in the area.

“The area where the pastor was killed was a strongly Hindu-dominated
area,” Das said. “However, the church has seen growth as many people
decided to follow Christ. The extremists harbored strong resentment
against the pastor for the same reason.”

A large throng of Christians had besieged the state chief minister’s
office on Jan. 14, protesting the killing and demanding justice, with
police detaining some of the protestors.

At about 8:30 p.m. on the night of the attack, the Hindu extremists
knocked on the door of the pastor’s house, claiming they wanted to pray
with him, sources said. When his wife, Pramila, opened the door, they
hit her with an iron rod, they said.

The Hindu extremists then stormed into the house, stabbed the pastor,
beat him with clubs and hit him on the head with an iron rod. His wife
managed to run out and call for help.

“The pastor was lying in a pool of blood when some people came to help
him,” area Christian leader Franklin Sudharkar told Morning Star News.
“The attack lasted only about 10 minutes, but the pastor sustained
severe injuries as he was stabbed in the liver, intestines and spleen.”

He was rushed to a hospital and put on ventilator, but he succumbed to his injuries at about 3 p.m. on Jan. 13.

Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Churches,
told Asia News that members of a Hindu extremist group had engaged the
pastor in a heated discussion about three months ago and threatened him.

Pastor Sanjeevi had overseen the 250-member Hebron Church in Vakirabad.

The attack appeared to be well-planned, and police believe the extremists have made a hit list of targets, Roa said.

On Dec. 29, he said, the same Hindu extremists knocked on the door of
the house of Baptist pastor Nama Moses in Narketpally, about 170
kilometers (105 miles) from Vakirabad, and attacked him in a similar
way. The pastor opened the door thinking the person knocking was seeking
shelter, said Moses Vatipalli of the All India Christian Council
(AICC).

“One extremist with a knife barged into the house and started stabbing
the pastor and the wife while two were standing outside,” Vatipalli told
Morning Star News. “The pastor received nine stab wounds, and his wife
sustained seven stitches on her head where the extremist hit her with an
iron rod.”

The couple received hospital treatment for 15 days, and the pastor was still on bed-rest at press time.

Roa added that the assailants “held grudges against the Christian
couple, as his grandparents started attending Christian meetings
regularly.”

In the same area on Aug. 9, 2011, masked Hindu extremists attacked
pastor Jaya Raj and an unidentified church member at midnight at the
pastor’s home. The assailants broke Raj’s left hand and broke his nose,
and the other Christian sustained severe injuries to his head, reported
the AICC. Both of them received hospital treatment.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Calcutta, Feb. 2: Christians in
India have not been included in the mainstream political discourse
despite substantial contributions to society and sustained efforts in
nation-building, a national council of Protestant churches said today.

“Some people still
think we are not Indians…. Christians are not present in the political
discourse of mainstream parties today. Despite helping give the country
some of the finest schools, colleges and hospitals, our efforts in
nation-building and contributions towards society have been overlooked,”
said Bishop Taranath S. Sagar, president of the National Council of
Churches in India.

Kicking off its
year-long centenary celebrations from Calcutta on Sunday, the council
also referred to the Bengal government’s decision to provide doles to
Muslim clerics. “If the government is handing honorariums to Muslim
clerics, I would request the chief minister to also extend the
honorariums to Christians as well. This act (giving doles to one
particular community) is simply pleasing a section of society for
votes,” Bishop Sagar said in response to a question after a news
conference at Calcutta Boys’ School in the afternoon.

The Mamata Banerjee government gives an honorarium of Rs 2,500 a month to imams and Rs 1,000 a month to muezzins in Bengal.

The council is an
ecumenical body of 30 Protestant and Orthodox churches across India and a
slew of Christian councils and organisations.

It is the second
largest body of churches in the country and includes the Church of North
India and Church of South India as member churches. Nearly 50 per cent,
about 12 million of the total Christian population of 25 million in
India, are Protestants.

Calcutta was
chosen as the first stop in a series of countrywide celebrations because
on February 2, 1914, it was at the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian
Association) building on S.N. Banerjee Road that the body held its first
meeting and formed a council.

The celebrations
will move to Aizawl, Hyderabad and Mumbai among other cities in the
coming months and culminate at the headquarters in Nagpur in November.

As the centenary
year coincides with the Lok Sabha polls, the council articulated its
concerns. The existing political establishment, it felt, had failed to
acknowledge or address the needs and aspirations of the Christian
community and largely overlooked its contributions to the nation.

The
YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) building at Corporation
Place (now SN Banerjee Road) in Calcutta played host to church leaders
and missionaries from across the country
on February 2, 1914, where they held their first meeting and formed a
council. On Sunday, the
National Council of Churches in India
chose Calcutta as the first stop to kick off their countrywide centenary
celebrations, which will culminate
in November at their headquarters in
Nagpur. Picture by Anup Bhattacharya

Bishop
Taranath S Sagar (third from left), the president of the National
Council of Churches in India, at the media conference at Calcutta Boys’
School on Sunday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

The council lamented that the term “minority” had become synonymous with just one community, overshadowing the others.

“If we look historically,
Christians are the true minorities… but today (the word) ‘minority’ has
become attached with just one community. There is no Protestant
representation in Parliament from West Bengal,” said Suman J. Biswas,
vice-president of the council.

Accusing
politicians of consistently using religion for political gains, the
council rued how issues like poverty had remained sidelined and
religious minorities had rarely been acknowledged as anything but a vote
bank.

Speaking on the
community’s preferences for the upcoming elections, the Bishop said in
response to a question that Christians were “highly divided” in their
opinion on Narendra Modi.

“Modi played the
development card in Gujarat and is playing the same card nationally now.
But even if he becomes the Prime Minister and acts secular, he might
face pressure from the lower cadres of the party. We are highly divided
in our opinion of Modi and I cannot make one general statement on behalf
of the Christians. Christians have traditionally been followers of the
Congress… but it might be time for some change,” Bishop Sagar said.

He added that the
council did not “endorse any particular party”. “We need a leader who is
strong and understands the needs of the minorities and works for
grass-roots development,” the Bishop said.

The theme of the
celebrations “towards integral mission and grassroots ecumenism” was
explained as one that was aimed at motivating people to go back to the
grassroots of the society and work towards its development.

“In recent times,
the development of the country has only been measured by political
parties in terms of bridges, high-rises and metro rails. Grassroots
development of the marginalised has remained neglected and that is why
growth has not been uniform,” said Reverend Sunil Raj Philip, the
executive secretary of the council.

The news conference was followed by a worship service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in the evening.